Words of Wisdom

I don't have a lot of words of my own today. Rather, I am quite "down in the dumps." My mom keeps telling me that I will have good days and bad days as I try to sort through my life, my feelings, and my thoughts about everything going on in my life.


Today is definitely one of the bad days. I don't like to post a lot about my personal life on days like these. No reason to drag everyone else down with me. Suffice it to say, I have a lot going on in my head that wouldn't be much fun to read about.


So...today I thought I would share a few quotes that are helping me through. The first is a quote from Erma Bombeck, a novelist and humor columnist in the latter part of the twentieth century. "When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.'"

This is a quote that reminds me to give my very best every day. Even if I am just tending bar and slinging drinks all day, I can still be friendly. I can be a good listener, and put a smile on someone else's face.

The next quote is actually from The Message, and is found in Matthew 16:24-26 "Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. 'Anyone who intends to come to me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?'"

This quote gives me great comfort knowing He is in the driver's seat. I wouldn't say that I'm exactly to the point of embracing the suffering, but I'm definitely trying to learn from it. I know that I've talked a lot about finding myself and discovering what I want out of life. This verse says that self-sacrifice is the way to discovering that. To truly give up everything I thought I knew, I thought I needed, that I thought I wanted. In so doing, I will find my *true* self - the person I am meant to be.

Finally, I leave you with one additional quote. This quote is actually part of someone's signature line on the NaNoWriMo board. There is no annotation, so I don't know to whom I should attribute it. It's too bad, really, because I love the quote. "Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter, try again, fail again. Fail better."

I love this quote for so many reasons. First of all, it is a reminder to KEEP ON TRYING. That you *will* fail. That mistakes will be made. But it is what we learn from each experience that is important. A mistake is only a mistake if we fail to gain anything from it.

I hope some of these quotes are able to help someone else. I know they have been and are a tremendous help to me. I have to remind myself to take it a day at a time and not try to fix all the world's problems at once. So I'm curious to know what has helped you through a difficult time. Is there a quote you've read, a mantra you've adopted, or a ritual you do that has helped you? Feel free to share!

*SJ*

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